Robert Linner, Whitney Peyton and David Linner. The Linner family founded Mountain Golf. Photos: Mountain Golf
Explore the thrilling and challenging combination of the classic game and wild terrain.
For as long as Robert and David Linner can remember, Mountain Golf has been a part of their family get-togethers. Now, the brothers are hoping to share their love of the game with a wider circle of friends. While Edina resident Robert has been working to perfect the equipment, Apple Valley resident David has been designing a pair of courses that will allow others to take a whack at the game. “It’s a fun outdoor game of skill,” Robert says. “It can endure for generations,” David says. “It has this tie that binds.”
Like golf, the object of Mountain Golf is to get the ball from the tee into the hole in the fewest number of strokes, but that’s where the similarities end. Rather than being meticulously groomed and maintained, a Mountain Golf course is fully dependent on the terrain, with the natural characteristics of the land—from roots and rocks to trees and even the occasional well head—making each course unique. The Mountain Golf club is made of turned wood and resembles a croquet mallet with a teaspoon scoop attached to one end (to rescue your ball from an unhittable spot), and the ball is like a dense, rubberized croquet ball. “You have to have enough weight to get over acorns and roots,” Robert says.
Whitney Peyton, who owns a home within the Yellowstone Club, tees off at its 10-hole Mountain Golf course in Big Sky, Montana.
The Linner family first learned about Mountain Golf when their grandfather H.P. Linner built a course with his neighbor J.H. Mayhew at their cabin property on Lake Minnewashta. Mayhew had played the game during a trip to Scotland in the 1930s and thought their property on Red Cedar Point might provide the perfect location for a course. In 1938, the course was completed, and the competition began. “Our father won the first championship,” Robert says. “He was 16.”
The boys grew up watching Mountain Golf tournaments on the shores of Lake Minnewashta, and they couldn’t wait to get their hands on a club and try the course. “The goal is to get your name on the trophy,” David says. (Both have succeeded.) In 1985, years after the Lake Minnewashta cabin was sold, a second course was designed and built at the family cabin on Sylvan Lake in the Brainerd Lakes area. A new generation of Linners began holding tournaments on Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Labor Day. The family eventually added a Fathers’ Weekend tournament for the dads and the kids while the moms were gifted with a weekend of peace and quiet. “It has strengthened our family and friendships,” Robert says. “It really does pull us together,” David says.
In 2023, the Linners partnered with the Yellowstone Club, a private residential club, in Big Sky, Montana, to open a 10-hole Mountain Golf course. Another course is currently in development in Park County, Montana, at Crazy Mountain Ranch. The Linners would love to see Mountain Golf become the next pickleball, a game accessible for all ages and abilities. “It’s designed to play at your cabin or in your yard,” Robert says. “It’s competitive and fun,” David says.
As they work to spread the word and the fun of Mountain Golf, the Linners continue to keep the tradition alive in their family, playing every chance that they get. “It keeps giving us an event, a reason to come together,” Robert says. “We’d love to see other families forge the same bond around the game,” David says.
